Last Day of 2013, or ‘Challenge Eve’

In which I look forward (?!) to the year ahead

Today is my last day of over eating and over drinking, of being lazy and not paying attention to what food I have, or of how much if it I eat. My last day of copious amounts of alcohol (it IS New Years Eve after all…) and tomorrow will see my last hangover for a long while.

Because tomorrow, January 1st 2013, is the first day if my year long challenge of running and/or biking a total distance of (at least) 2013 miles, raising (at least) £2013 for charity.

I’m also going to follow a 28 day nutrition plan and a 28 day fitness plan for all of January. Me and Sarah have been to Tesco today to stock up on healthy foods, and the fitness plan is less than ten minutes a day. Prawns for breakfast tomorrow! (Seriously.)

The main problem at the minute is that I’m quite ill. Had a rough head and sore throat for the past few days, so might not be getting the average miles in tomorrow (5.5miles a day for a year.) if not, when I’m better I can get riding on the Turbo Trainer that Ironman Tony has given me. (As soon as I set it up in the shed.)

Both Nigel and Duffy say they’re joining in on the challenge, so at least I’ll have some company. Also, there’s a few people on here too who day they’ll be joining in, so good luck to us all!

(Also, thanks to the nice reviews left on amazon for my blog. If anyone else wants to leave one, please do! Search amazon for ‘Hemingway run’ the ‘leave review.’ Don’t have to buy it to review!)

Wedding Day
On the 23rd December, myself and Sarah got married. It was a perfect day and it all went… Well… Perfect! We’re just about recovered, and I want to thank everyone that sent us nice messages, especially the ones on here who I’ve never even met!

‘Tis The Season To Be Lazy!

Tra-la-la-la-laaaaa, La-la-la-laaaaaa!

My last run, it turns out, was on the 4th of December. Over two weeks ago. Doesn’t really bode well for my 2013in2013 challenge, if I stay at that consistency! I do have an excuse, however, as we got the keys for our first house on the 7th December and only just moved in on the 17th, what with decorating/cleaning/buying housey things.

Also, we get married in four days (lucky, LUCKY Sarah!) so been quite stressed busy with wedding plans.

The main reasons though, are probably down to the weather and the time of year. Who want’s to go out for a run when Elf is on? (SANTA! OH MY GOD I KNOW HIM, I know him!) Would you rather go for a bike ride or see if Kevin’s parents leave him Home Alone yet again? (Seriously. call the social services.)

I’d much prefer to see the Muppets singing ‘When the cold wind blows right through you / chills you to the bone’ then actually be outside with a cold wind blowing right through me and chilling me to the bone!

I’m a member of a gym near work, but haven’t been for months on end. Turns out there’s a gym near our new house (behind a pub… dangerously tempting…) which opens 7am-9pm weekdays and 8am-8pm weekends so I could get in there on the (exciting) treadmill a few days a week and they also have a swimming pool, so could give that a go.

Also, it’s just under 2 weeks til the 2013in2013 challenge and my friend Duffy (not the singer) has also taken up the challenge, so will have a bit of moral support! If anyone wants to help, please can you click on my amazon blog button thing on the right of the page and leave a review of my blog? You don’t have to sign up to the Kindle blog to review it, but all money raised from it goes to charity towards my £2013 target.

Big BIG thanks to the reviewers that have already reviewed after they viewed.

Happy Christmas!

Amazon Reviews Please!

Amazon! (Website, not the river. Or race of warrior women.)

My blog is now available on Kindle through Amazon’s Kindle Blog downloader thing! (Sorry for getting all technical there.)

The link to it is here (U.K): Kindle Blog

The link to it is here (U.S): Kindle Blog

Apparently when you subscribe it downloads each new blog entry as soon as I post one. (Guessing you need to be in Wi-Fi range)

The blog costs £0.99 a month to subscribe, and I’m sure you’re asking ‘Why would I pay for something I get here for free, even though it is exceptionally humorous and enlightening?’ The answer is: I don’t really know. Maybe so you can read it over and over on the bus? Or show it to your friends?

Probably not. No, the real reason is that the money raised from the Kindle downloads will be put towards my 2013 In 2013 target of £2013. So you’ll be doing good! Not entirely sure how much of the £0.99 comes my way though, so you might want to tell everyone you know to subscribe too.

Anyway, the main point of this update is this: I need reviews to get a good rating on Amazon for my blog! You don’t even need to subscribe to it, just click the link and click ‘Add a Review’ then tell the world what you think of me! (Wait, don’t do that, just make up some nice stuff.) If you want to try the Kindle Blog, you can subscribe for 14 days for free. Thanks!!

2013 In 2013 Update

Well, it’s official. 2013 In 2013 is set. I got an email back from a bloke called Craig at the One In A Million Charity saying thank you for choosing to raise money for them, and asking me to go in and see them to talk about it. No backing down now!

No doubt I’ll be blogging a lot more than I do now once it’s all under way, complaining about the distances and asking why no one tried to talk me out of it…

Deja Vu

Didn’t you just say that…?

You’ll have already read most of this, if you’ve been following my blog for a bit. If not, it’ll be like a new blog entry! Lucky you!

Anyway, I think I’ve pretty much sorted the details and stuff for my 2013 In 2013 challenge. Instead of writing it all out again, I’m gonna be lazy and link you to the page you want to be on. (Copy and paste? Never heard of it. Plus can’t have it on here three times!)

Thanks!

https://hemingwayrun.wordpress.com/2013in2013/

www.justgiving.com/hemingwayrun

Inspiration

Because sometimes you need a kick up the arse

Next time you want to quit, or skip a run, (as in, miss a run, not skip around the run instead of running the run…) watch this video and re-evaluate your commitment to what you want to achieve.

Inspiring Photos

I love it when people put these on their blogs and Facebook and stuff, each one gives me a little push of motivation. I might print them out and look at them when the running gets tiring, but then I’d probably run into a tree or a dog or something.

Bradford 10k (HA!) 02/12/12

In Which a 10k Run Isn’t a 10k Run

Saturday 01/12/12

I got home from work and decided it’d probably be a good idea to have a glance through the race info that ‘d gotten through the post about 2 weeks back and only looked at once. (I’d looked at my race number about 14 times.) Sitting at the dining room table I opened a nice cool refreshing can of non-alcoholic beer (mmmm…..) and started to read.

The info booklet was about the route of the 10k (it said 10k) and what time the 10k (said 10k again) started. While I was reading, Ironman Tony came into the dining room and picked up my race number. He then put it down, went over to the other side of the room and then brought out HIS race number for the Bradford 10k (there it is again, 10k) from where he’d been hiding it. Didn’t tell any of us, just sneakily entered. That brought our little group for the 10k (10k) up to five.

Myself, Rob, Nigel, Paul (Nige’s mate) and Ironman Tony.

Nige, Me, Ironman Tony

Sunday 02/12/12

The race was due to start at 10:00 but before hand we needed to go collect our timing chips. We got there about 09:30 and there were quite a lot of people in running gear warming up, whereas I was freezing my arse off. The weather app on my phone said zero degrees centigrade. Six months ago I didn’t run, now I get up early on a Sunday to go into the centre of Bradford and freeze to death…

Bradford 10k (HA!)

Anyway, we met up with Rob (rest of us came down together) and then after a few minutes lost Rob. After a quick toilet break it was time to line up at the start and luckily re-found Rob. (Not the hardest person to spot in a crowd.) The chimes on the town hall clock let us know we were underway. (Not with a loud speaker or anything, just by chiming ten times. For ten o clock. And a 10k.)

Straight away, as with the other race I ran with him, Ironman Tony was off into the distance. Before too long Nige and Paul were gone too, leaving myself and Rob stuck behind a massive cock as we went on Thornton Rd, on the first of our 2 5K laps. (Making….10k)

Bradford City Mascot

The course then took us up a lovely hill that never seemed to end and at the top we had a few seconds of walking as my calves weren’t warmed up enough and Rob was having trouble with one of his ankles. Setting off again we turned left and downhill, then slightly uphill. Left at the roundabout where we almost ran into a bloke shouting at a steward about the course route. We then followed the hill downwards with Bradford University and a water station on our left before turning left again and winding through a few of the Universities streets.

There was a hidden hill that we weren’t aware of. (Not like under a bedsheet or anything, just wasn’t expecting it.) And although it was short, it was very steep. Didn’t see that many people run all the way up without stopping. Back down again, then on Thornton Rd in the opposite direction. We’d had quite a few walks on the way, so was surprised when Rob announced we were on for a 25minute 5k.

We saw Ironman Tony coming the other way on the start of his 2nd lap and thought we were near the check point, but the course went a lot further round than we expected, round the back of City Hall and then around the front. As we went past the halfway point the timer was 29:28. Sarah was there to take pictures of us as we went past. Spurred on we were, so we went to do the same lap again.

Me & Rob, ready for loop two!

Not much different on this loop apart from we took water from the water station, Rob stopped to stretch out his ankle, and I WAS SLAPPED BY A GIRL!

On the hidden hill we’d just got to the top when SLAP! Right across my left shoulder. I looked around and she said ‘Come on, get going!’ As though wanting to motivate someone is a good excuse for battering them in the back streets of Bradford. Rob just laughed.

We finished the 10k (pah!) strong and met up with Sarah, Ironman Tony, Sarah’s mum and sister and the others at the finish line. I was amazed, AMAZED that my sports tracker app recorded a time of 58:16!! That’s over a minute and a half off my PB, and 8 minutes off of Rob’s! That’s fantastic progress in only 2 weeks! That’s…. that’s…. hang on…. 8.8k…?

Bradford 10k (8.8k) had ‘steward problems.’ Which meant that the steward that was supposed to say ‘turn right here’ actually didn’t say anything, and let people run straight on. When the bloke was shouting at the steward early on about the course route, he was right! They missed off a whole chunk of it! We received a medal at the end, but the medal is for a 10k and we only ran 8.8k. The medal was a bit pants too, generic picture of runners on the front and a small stamp on the back that said ‘Bradford City Run 10k.’ Didn’t bother taking a picture.

Bradford 8.8k Route

Rob sprinted faster than me at the end, which means that 2 weeks ago out of the four of us I came 1st, but this week out of the 5 of us I came last. Or as Nigel kindly put it, ‘From Champ to Chump in 2 weeks.’

After the race, we all piled into Lloyds Bar for a breakfast and beer. (Plenty of beer.) Which made everything seem a little (a lot) better.

Tuesday 05/12/12

I got a message through Twitter asking if I wanted to talk about the Bradford 10k only being 8.8k live on BBC Radio Leeds. I got the message a little after the radio program finished. Stupid Bradford 8.8k.

Next race is the Meltham 10k in Huddersfield on 27th January. Hopefully it’ll be well marshaled!